The Game Festival on Steam is all about showcasing upcoming games with one of the emphases being on playable demo’s that people can try out. You know, like the good old days. Except because it’s a rare feature it is also time limited so the demos will only be available to try out until 22 June @ 7pm. Still, there’s enough to put that fibre line to work and download a few demos to test out.
I’ve downloaded a few and so I’ll post my observations here in this thread.
This short demo is very slick and quick. It’s got a Superhot kind of vibe in that despite it being fast-paced precise action it’s also a puzzle that you have to work out. How to slice up all the enemies without getting shot. It helps that you’re agile: leaping, wallrunning, sliding and slowing time to dodge projectiles.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all would play out over a full game.
3 Likes
I love that demos are making a come back. Some very interesting games in this festival. Lots of VR ones too.
3 Likes
Like Darth and Metal, I’m also happy that demos are becoming a thing again. I’ve looked at six so far… will add to this post as thoughts occur, and if I do any others.
In Sound Mind
As seen in the PC Gaming Show. First person psychological horror with a bit of puzzling thrown in. Sadly, I can’t get the controls to work in the demo. Game launches okay but when the control is given to the player my character is stuck staring at the floor and spinning around. It may be an controller config issue that the game is struggling to recognise that I have a gamepad, wheel and joystick all connected, but it should still let me control things with the mouse and keyboard. If I get a chance I may try it again on the weekend.
Grounded
The best of the demos I’ve tried by far. It’s being developed by Obsidian and published by Xbox Game Studios, so I guess it should really stand out above the offerings from smaller, indie shops.
You play as a teenager shrunk down to the size of an ant, stuck in the terrifying enlarged world of your backyard. Basic survival game I suppose, with puzzles to solve, things to craft and harvest, and bugs and spiders to avoid. (The ants are frikken violent!) The demo gives you just 30 minutes to complete a small task but it is replayable so once you work out the how to solve the task you could get it down in 10-odd minutes and then spend the rest of the time wandering around. Releasing to Early Access on Steam 28 July (and on Xbox Insider too.)
Nine Noir Lives
Comedic cat detective themed point-and-click adventure game from SA developer Silvernode Studios. It’s the one @Shrike helped test and has it’s own topic here.
Cartel Tycoon
Snowtopia: Ski Resort Tycoon
Party Animals
This was something a bit different. The concept of a couple stranded on a deserted (but not lifeless) planet and the cool flying/hovering movement system was enough to convince me to try out the game.
Playing it, I was impressed at the quality of the voice acting, which is good because a lot of the impact in this game will come from investing in the characters. The combat was pretty cool in that you have to work as a team between the 2 characters. The demo is single player only but gives you a good idea of how co-op would work.
The game is advertised as coming to Steam and XGP (PC and Console) which is pretty cool since I’d likely play it around release then with XGP
2 Likes
Have you played Company of Heroes? Then you’ll know exactly what to expect from this game. It’s CoH with mechs instead of tanks.
For anyone like me who has never played the original Destroy all Humans, the demo for the remake convinced me.
3 Likes
This was fun to play. It’s a mix of a top down shooter and base defense game. It looks great and the hordes of aliens really feel like hordes. The demo left me wanting to play more.
1 Like